Brutal Attacks Are Brutal

That it was caught on video is fortuitous, a reflection of the reality that much of our world is preserved on video. This provides us with the ability to see what before we could only hear about, have described for us. When we watch it, the brutality is very different, very real.

In the scheme of brutality, this one was particularly horrifying for three separate reasons. The first was its gratuitous nature, that the conduct was so randomly vicious. The 65-year-old woman was doing absolutely nothing to draw her attacker’s attention, no less his outrage and violence.

The second is the depth of violence against her. It wasn’t “just” a random punch, as landed on the face of Rick Moranis, but stomping on an old Asian woman on the ground. Few people, indulging their worst feelings, would engage in such a wantonly violent act.

The third is the “Kitty Genovese” aspect, that a security guard stood there, feet away, and watched it happen without moving a muscle, whether to stop it, to call the police, even to yell at the attacker. And then the coup de grace, a second security guard closing the door as if to shut the attack out of his world. Two men who denied their own humanity by being present for this viciousness and choosing to do nothing, choosing to close their eyes and the door. All the while, this was the man who allegedly stomped on this poor Asian woman.

Despite the video, the New York Times describes the attack.

A man kicked a 65-year-old woman to the ground in broad daylight on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk on Monday, stomped on her several times and made anti-Asian remarks in what the police called another targeted hate crime.

“A man”?

The police said the attack happened around 11:40 a.m. outside an apartment building at 360 W. 43rd St., where a surveillance video showed an unidentified man kick the woman in the torso after the two approached each one another on the sidewalk.

An “unidentified man”?

The attacker, who the police department’s hate crimes task force asked for the public’s help in identifying, stomped on the woman’s upper body and head at least three times after she fell to the ground.

“The attacker”?

The video, which was released by the police and drew widespread attention online, showed a man who appeared to be a building worker standing in the lobby, unwilling to intervene. He then closed the building’s front door while the woman was lying on the ground after the attacker walked off.

“A man”?

The victim is described as a 65-year-old woman, but nowhere in the body of the New York Times story is it stated that the victim was an Asian woman. It’s noted that the attacker made anti-Asian comment, “Fuck you. You don’t belong here,” but never that she was Asian. At the end of the story, violent attacks on Asians are noted, including the subway beating caught on Tik Tok, but still no mention that the victim in this crime was Asian.

The headline to the story, however, notes that she was an Asian woman, although the reporter who wrote the story doesn’t write the headline. And the headline doesn’t even mention “a man.”

As the image of the attacker makes apparent, the “man” who stomped on this seemingly random old woman’s head, who told her “you don’t belong here,” who casually walks away after brutally, and pointlessly, engaging in wanton inexplicable violence, was a black man. This isn’t because all black men are violent criminals, or all black people hate Asian people. but because this “man,” this one individual, this one human being, committed this horrific attack.

The New York Times was correct not to note his race, as his race had nothing to do with it. While he is a black man, he is also a human being with agency, with the ability to walk past this random 65-year-old Asian woman and go on his way or, as happened, to kick this woman and then stomp on her head. And stomp again. And again. This man did it.

And those other two men, perhaps security guards, perhaps just doormen, maybe even just a guy standing there for no particular reason, similarly had a choice to make. He could have done something, anything, to help the woman, to prevent the attack, to act in furtherance of a human being who was being viciously attacked before his eyes a mere few feet away. He, too, made his choice, and his choice was to do nothing. The other man’s choice was more affirmative, to close the door, to shut the violence happening before him on the street out of his world.

The attack represented another jarring reminder of the rise in violent crimes targeting people of Asian descent across the United States, which advocates say has been exacerbated by pandemic-related racism. On March 16, a gunman killed six women of Asian descent in attacks on massage businesses in the Atlanta area that left eight people dead.

There are people who commit violence against other people. Some do so because of hatred toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, and others do so for differing motives, whether financial or hatred for more irrational, more bizarre reasons. Trying to fit every act into a narrative, as has become the desperate need of too many people who passionately believe they are doing “good” by deceiving themselves and others into believing that this is all part of some simplistic ideology, has created a false and twisted grasp of what happens on the street in the real world.

The attack here was astoundingly brutal and horrifying. That the perpetrator was black is no more relevant than making every insipid excuse to deny that black people are not human beings with free will and the same responsibility not to engage in violence against others as anyone else.

The New York Times was right not to mention that this attacker was black. They would similarly be right not to mention when an attacker is another race when it is not relevant to the story. Every crime isn’t about race. Ironically, this one appears to have been, though the race at issue was the victim’s, and the reporter chose not to mention that either. Thankfully, the headline writer saw fit to add in that detail.

45 thoughts on “Brutal Attacks Are Brutal

  1. Guitardave

    If she pulled out a pistol and caped his ass,(like she should legally be able to do), the journalists word-waltz would’ve turned into the racist-ragtime-blues real quick.
    I think the journos need to brush up on the updated section in the AP style book called,”When to play the race card”. Its only 752 pages long.

    As for the asses in the lobby, the inaction of these passive pieces-of-shit points to something far worse for society than one angry, violent black man does.

    1. SHG Post author

      I shouldn’t post this, because it’s almost certain to take the comments to a place they shouldn’t go, but I wondered, as I watched this video, what the guy whose truck windows were being smashed was supposed to do in the social justice universe? Or was he just supposed to not be there or suck it up?

      1. Guitardave

        Unlike the crowd, this gun owner still has a mostly working relationship with sanity…but, he was, ‘in the kitchen’ …he had to know, and maybe even sub-consciously invited, the possibility of confrontation. The dynamic is apples-to-chevys when comparing it with a one-on-one attack.

        I like that you’re still willing to ‘see where the comments go’ in spite of knowing the risks.
        It’s an indicator that your mind isn’t as decrepit as your woke fans would have you believe.
        Now let the fun begin.
        PS:…and don’t trash them all, as sometimes us idiots like to know were not the slowest ones sitting at the bar.

      2. Scott Spencer

        To continue off topic. Not having one in the chamber seems dumb to me. When carrying always carry read to fire (at least that is what I was taught).

        But to answer the question as well….since he is a white dude with a Trump decorated truck he is supposed to stay home and ponder his failings and decide how he can make those failings up to the SJW’s…..
        .

        1. SHG Post author

          On the one hand, we have a constitutional right to engage in peaceful lawful protest. On the other hand, there is certainly a performative nature to it, and putting oneself in a position where there is a high likelihood of being attacked seems to make the performance at least somewhat about being attacked. Unlike the poor woman who was stomped for doing nothing more than existing, was he asking for it?

  2. Scott Spencer

    Not sure this is entirely relevant here, but why does the age of victim matter either? Age is mentioned, it seems, when the victim or the perpetrator is a woman, but not mentioned when its a man unless its an elderly man.

    Like the mention of race, age seems to be used to inflame rage.

    The attack above was a awful, but would it be less awful if it was a 35 year old white woman? Or a 25 year old Ugandan woman? Or a 15 year old teenager on his/her way home from school?

    1. SHG Post author

      Age is relevant as to vulnerability. It’s not that an attack on a younger person is better, but that an attack on someone who is unable, by reason of age, to defend themselves is particularly malevolent.

  3. Solon

    Perhaps I’m simply trying to fit the stories into my own narrative, but it seems to me that when a segment of the population encourages others to view life primarily through a racial lens, it ought not to be too surprising when they do so (inasmuch as the attacks you describe appear to be motivated by anti-Asian bias). Of course, that does not detract from the attacks ultimately being the individuals’ autonomous choices, but it can’t help the situation.

    1. SHG Post author

      There is obviously the hypocrisy of race being critical except when it doesn’t fit the narrative. But is the answer to invoke race in all instances or not invoke race at all unless the actual facts (rather than the narrative) make it material?

      1. Solon

        I don’t intend to point out the hypocrisy (which you already did), but to suggest that the woke invocation of race as a defining characteristic of all human interactions would actually encourage these attacks, because the perpetrators could (admittedly I cannot see in their minds, and this admission may doom my point) see the victims primarily in terms of their race/ethnicity, and thus a proper target of anger. As for reporting (which is the actual subject of your post), it would be better if race were only ever invoked if it was relevant to the particular circumstances (eg., as a motivation for an attack), but when society is told that race is always a factor, that becomes circular reasoning (leading to the hypocrisy you mention when it is not noted).

      2. B. McLeod

        Perhaps the underlying reasons for these random attacks is attackers’ resentmentment that another ethic group is claiming space in the Victim Tent.

      3. Elpey P.

        The irony is that this appears to be an outcome of that shoehorning of race into everything. Unless “you don’t belong here” has some alternate, personal meaning, it’s a pretty good indicator that race is a material factor here.

        And it’s less likely to be because of xenophobic allegiance to Trump (the preferred establishment narrative) than the prevailing mindset that Jim Crow-style attitudes should be co-opted for racial justice rather than universally denounced. You could imagine this sort of scene happening in 1955 Mississippi with different players, and the locals’ handwringing over such excessive behavior.

        1. SHG Post author

          I’m sure there is a serious and thoughtful point buried in here, but I can’t spend the rest of the day trying to figure out what it is.

  4. B. McLeod

    This was one of two videos that was on the CBS morning news. The other was a spirited beat-down and choking of a man “who appeared Asian.” By “a man.” It was also random, and occurred on public transit. In both reports, the race of the random attacker was apparently deemed “not material to the story.” Of course, every viewer could see from the videos, but the reporters are not allowed to speak of it.

  5. James

    There are too many legal punishments for doing the right thing. People have been trained not to get involved.

    1. B. McLeod

      It might well actually be the case that the security guards had standing orders not to leave their posts to respond to events outside. They are being paid to protect a specific business and probably its guests and invitees while inside. It’s a mercenary function, and if they stray and screw up, their employer is looking at work comp and possible respondeat consequences.

      1. SHG Post author

        Some guys might say “screw it, I can’t watch this happen and do nothing.” Not all guys, but some.

        1. David Meyer-Lindenberg

          Duty to rescue. Like the only good law Germany has that American states don’t. Join me in supporting it, we have cookies.

          1. SHG Post author

            Everything doesn’t require a law, which gives rise to a secondary problem. Some things should be done just because you’re a human being.

            1. Onlymom

              Hang on. Can’t have it both ways. Say you wished one of those employees should have done something even in the face of possible orders to do to nothing not job related. When we have a United States Supreme Court that has ruled that every law enforcement officer has no duty to protect. Just clean up the mess afterwards. If the people we pay through the nose to serve and protect no longer have to protect why should we.

              Personally I think the individual in the video is acting like a animal that has developed a taste of human blood and needs to be put down. Would have laughed my head off if someone had walked up in the video and pulled their weapon and ordered him to back off. Then when he didn’t comply took his head off.

    2. Guitardave

      If that was your mom that got the shit kicked out of her, would you be satisfied with the response from the door guy, “I was trained to not get involved” ?
      Like Scott said..”Not all guys[have a moral compass], but some[do].

  6. Howl

    “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.”
    -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  7. Jake

    I don’t remember anyone suggesting only white people would be moved to acts of violence against Asian-Americans because of Trump’s dangerous rhetoric about the pandemic.

    1. Paleo

      That point flew right by you, Jake.

      Where is all the caterwauling about “Black Supremacy” because blacks carry out most of the attacks, including this one? They don’t mention the race of the attacker because it complicates their stupid narrative, but note that they still manage to get in a mention of the massage parlor shootings even though there is no connection to this. But the shooter was a white guy so the narrative must be maintained, even though he says there’s no racial motive to his act.

      Sure, Trump was garbage. Call him racist, fine with me. But you decline to call out the blatant racism of your own ilk. And Trump is gone. Maybe focus some attention on demanding that our shit news media fix themselves. Or maybe you just like fairy tales presented as news.

      1. Jake

        “But the shooter was a white guy so the narrative must be maintained, even though he says there’s no racial motive to his act.”

        Oh well, if the guy who murdered six Asian women in a killing-spree exclusively targeting locations where Asian women work, I guess we should just take him at his word. Nothing to see here, move along.

        1. SHG Post author

          The mass murder in Atlanta is a perfect example of both sides of the problem. The rush to blame racism when the motive was to attack sex workers, not Korean women (and which you perpetuate here because you lack a fundamental grasp of the logical fallacy that correlation does not imply causation, you reject facts in favor of narrative and you have no shame whatsoever of constantly arguing absurd rationalizations), and the deafening silence as to race when the attacker is black and the only motive is racial, which has been most of the attacks.

        2. Miles

          Forget the hundreds of Asians he drove past as he went from one massage parlor to another and make it about Asians rather than massage parlors as he confessed?* Even you can’t be that much of a doofus, Jake. Oh wait, you can and are.

          You should be happy people think you’re just trolling here, Jake, because the alternative is you’re dumber than dirt. And please reply and call me a name, because I offended your dignity with something you’ve never experienced personally, actual thought.

          *Why should anyone “just take his word for it” when we can take Jake’s delusions instead?

  8. Paleo

    If you’re hoping for anything other than narrative and spin from any of the major media outlets these days, be prepared to be disappointed. Those days are gone.

    I’ve pretty much quit reading/watching because it’s gonna take too much effort from me to figure out what’s real and what isn’t in the report, not to mention that I’d prefer to not be influenced (even a little) by someone’s narrative. If I want a good narrative I’ll read Vonnegut or Hemingway or whatever.

  9. B. McLeod

    Looks like the staff who failed to intervene had been suspended. So, either they didn’t have standing instructions to avoid involvement, or they are going under the bus.

  10. KeyserSoze

    It would not surprise me if the people of NYC start forming mutual self defense pacts for their areas. If DeBlasio is not going to police and the DA is not going to enforce the law, then that vacuum will be filled one way or another and the results will not be pretty or good.

  11. B. McLeod

    Today Biden’s dog Major bit another federal employee. Curiously, all the media has ever revealed is that the first attack was on a Secret Service employee, and today’s attack was a park service employee. Given the paw-city of information on the victims, and the media’s obsession with suppressing awkward racial issues, I think the question fairly needs to be asked: Is Biden’s dog trained to bite people of color?

  12. Buncy

    First of all, thanks for the post, Oracle of Long Island. It is shocking and an obvious hate crime. Even if the racist perp is tried without the ‘hate crime’ aggravation, he is still entitled to 10 years in prison, or more depending on his record. There is an excellent frontal view of his face; he’ll have to disappear into thin air to avoid capture.
    More aggravation of the crime: the dear little lady is small and is elderly.
    By the way, the company which owns the upscale hotel has suspended the doorman, and is trying to find out the ID of the other man — the door shutter — so sanctions can be imposed on him too. Both of those “Kitty Genovese era” creeps deserve harsh sanctions.

    1. B. McLeod

      On CBS this evening, a masked man who claimed to be a resident said he was “disappointed” with the conduct of the building staff. He gave his name as “Sean Finn.”

      I just can’t wait to see where this goes next.

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